Super Naruto
by Captain Tungsten
Summary: Naruto learns Kage Bunshin early, and uses it to assist him is his goal...of becoming strong.
1. Prologue

**Super!Naruto**

**Prologue**

Naruto looked across the room at himself and smirked. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a success. He'd snuck a peek at one of the Hokage's big scrolls the last time he was in his office on disciplinary charges, and this was the result. His smirk slipped slightly as he recalled the other result. The Hokage had been lenient, considering what some of the council members had wanted to do to him. He'd been forbidden from taking the gennin exam until he turned twelve. He'd been counting on this jutsu letting him graduate early after he heard from one of the older students how the test was almost always on Bunshin. Now what was he going to do for the next six years.

He sighed and flopped back onto the bed, shading his eyes with one hand. He heard his clone moving behind him and shifted to see it. It looked…well, it looked just like him. If he hadn't known better he could have been looking into a mirror as both physical features and expression were identical to the ones he himself was currently wearing.

"So what now?" he questioned. "What do you…I…we…What do _you_ think we should do now?" Stumbling over pronouns was a little embarrassing, but it was an unusual situation, and at least he was talking to someone he knew wouldn't make fun of him for it.

He was proved right when his clone shrugged, ignoring his verbal stumble, and answered him, "Well, I guess we've got to wait. I mean, there's not a lot else we can do." He looked thoughtful, and Naruto was instantly aware how odd that expression looked on his face, "I suppose…I mean if the test is on Bunshin, then we're pretty much guaranteed a pass in six years, right?"

Naruto sat up, narrowly avoiding smashing his head into that of his clone, leaning over him. "That's right! So that means we don't really need to worry about the academy any more, huh. We can spend the time training on other things."

"Well sure," the clone matched his enthusiasm, "but what other things, Boss?"

"Boss?" Naruto was a little surprised by the moniker but didn't let it slow him down, "never mind, listen. I'm weak, I mean we're weak."

"We're six years old, Boss."

"That's no excuse, Bro. Other six year olds are stronger than us. And the older kids, don't even get me started. There's this kid in the class above, can't do so much as a henge – worse than me, even – but yesterday I saw him put his fist right through a dummy. And you know that proper ninja's are gonna top even that. I want that, Bro. I want that kind of power."

The clone looked intrigued, but also surprised. "How long you been planning this, Boss, 'cause I didn't know any o' this stuff when you made me?"

A sheepish look spread across the originals face, "'Bout five minutes. Doesn't make it less true, tho'. But how d'you get strong anyway? I mean, like, I guess you lift weights or something but..."

His clone tapped its chin gently as it thought, and a slow grin spread across its features. "You know what, Boss. I bet we could find out." He spread his arms in an expansive gesture, "After all, Boss, you've got an army."

Naruto chuckled, "I guess I do, at that." His stomach rumbled and he leaned over to his side table to check his alarm clock for the time. "Damn thing's stopped again. Hey Bro, you mind checking out the time in the kitchen."

The clone shrugged, "Sure thing." The whole apartment was only really two rooms, including the bathroom, but he stepped over closer to the fridge so he could see the wall mounted clock above the stove, before turning to return to the bed, "Well Boss it's about…" Before he could finish the sentence, he slipped on a patch of water on the floor and went careening over backwards, cracking his head on the fridge door. Seconds later he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto had leapt from the bed when he saw the clone fall, but staggered now as the clone's memories rushed to join his. His eyes were wide as he contemplated the consequences of his discovery. A wide grin split his face and a casual seal summoned another clone. Meeting his own eyes across the room his grin threatened to crack his face in two.

"We're gonna have a lot of fun with this, Bro."

His clone mirrored the grin. "Whatever you say, Boss."


	2. Chapter 1

**Super!Naruto**

Feel free to play "Eye of the Tiger" while you read this one

**Chapter 1: The Training Montage**

The sun shining through his curtains roused Naruto from the bonds of sleep. Hopping out of bed and scurrying to the shower, he thought about what day it was. After six years of waiting, today was his graduation test, _finally._ As he stepped into the shower and turned on the water, he reflected on what he had done to reach this point.

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Six year old Naruto stood in the field and surveyed his troops. The clones stood at attention before him, eagerly awaiting orders.

"Alright, Guys, you know what to do. Get out there and figure out ways for us to get stronger. I'll stay here and – I don't know –do some push-ups or something. Get Going!"

His clones scattered and he himself began to put actions to words, dropping to his hands and levering himself up and down at the best pace he could manage. He kept it up for some time, until he was interrupted by the first of his clones returning.

"Hey Boss, a little help here. These are for you after all…" Naruto turned to see his clone and was surprised to observe that it was dragging two _somethings_ that had dug deep furrows in the earth all along the field. "Cool, huh? They're training weights. You wear them on your ankles, and over time they make you stronger. I found a guy beating up a training post a couple of training grounds thattaway," he gestured to the west, dropping one of the weights to do so. "He called me 'outrageously hip' and gave me these weights, so I could 'stoke my flames of youth'. Here, let me help you get them on."

With some difficulty, Naruto and the clone managed to strap the leaden weights to his ankles, making sure they were secure. Naruto succeeded on taking a couple of torturous steps before he fell over. The clone levered him to his feet again, grinning brilliantly for having succeeded in this mission.

"This is…very hard." Naruto managed another few steps, "but I guess if it makes me stronger…"

"Great, Boss," The clone was genuinely pleased for him, and his voice held no malice whatsoever as he continued, "I've got another couple of guys brining the _rest_ of the weights." Peering off into the distance, "Oh look, there. I think that's them now."

Naruto's eyes caught the motion of another four clones dragging items at the far edge of the field and his eyes widened in horror. _"More_ weights?"

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It was two days after Naruto's seventh birthday, and he could be found in the same field he had trained in during the past year. Thick weights ringed his arms and legs, and a heavy vest covered his torso. He was lifting a large boulder above his head and doing squats. Clones were scattered liberally around the rest of the field, reading or working on minor problems. A ring of five clones surrounded Naruto and were throwing fist sized rocks at Naruto with the intent of making him lose his balance.

"Boss! Hey Boss!" The exclamation did surprise him, but he kept his balance and signalled his attackers with a glance to stop their rock throwing. Turning his attention to the excited clone who had shouted out, he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

His clones were used to this treatment. Their Boss was working hard to become stronger, which meant they became stronger also. If that meant he was often too out of breath to give verbal responses…well that was just something they accepted.

"You're running out of space to put new weights, Boss. My group thinks we've got a way to fix that. We use this seal, see…"

Naruto managed to find his voice. "Bro, I don't know anything about seals, which means you didn't when I made you, so you'd have to be one hell of a fast learner since I only made you an hour ago. 'Sides, we looked up some training seals ages ago. Closest we came to finding something was that guy who tried to play around with gravity and turned himself into paste."

The clone looked sheepish, but no less excited. "No, listen Boss. We don't know a lot about seals its true, but this is just logic. And it's funny you should mention gravity…"

Naruto stopped his squats and heaved the boulder away from himself, letting it crash into the ground. He looked the clone in the eye. "I think you'd better explain this to me, but you know better than to try messing with gravity, some things are just dumb."

"Well, it's not exactly gravity, Boss. More like imitating the effects. And as for the explanation…"

As it turned out, the explanation was fairly simple. Exhibit A was a very basic storage seal of the type used in scrolls to seal simple inanimate objects. You could seal an object inside, and then later unseal it, exactly as it was before, using your chakra as a key. Exhibit B was a slightly more advanced storage seal, of the type designed to be used in traps. Objects could be sealed in it in the same manner as the basic seal, but upon unsealing them, the objects were accelerated away from the seal. It was usually used for weapons, meaning tripping a trap could have multiple weapons appear from nowhere and shoot at you.

The clone had examined both seals, and discovered that, while similar, the second seal had elements not present in the first. Logically then, those elements must be the parts of the seal responsible for acceleration of the object. If those elements could be applied to one of Naruto's weights…

"You see we don't actually feel gravity," the clone finished, "we just feel its effects, and the effect is: to be accelerated towards the centre of the earth at a constant rate – a little under ten metres per second per second. If we put a seal that does the same thing on one of your weights, it will be pulled towards the centre of the earth at twice the acceleration. It will seem to weigh twice as much because the gravity it feels would seem to be twice as high." He sighed, "Some of the others are working on a partial storage seal, to seal something's volume, but not it's mass. It doesn't seem to be working, so this is probably your best bet."

Naruto blinked, then smiled slowly, "Good job. It will need a constant flow of chakra, right. It's not just a one-off acceleration like in the trap-scroll. It's a constant thing so it'll need a steady supply. Will it work on humans, or is it limited to weights."

"Well, in theory," The clone spoke slowly, "in theory it would be even easier to use on a human, because the object to be accelerated is closer to the chakra source. But don't forget about 'paste-guy,' Boss."

"I haven't forgotten about anything. That guy clearly exceeded his limits. We'll be careful, take it slow."

"Yeah, but Boss, even then there are consequences. I mean, your organs might start to collapse under their own weight. A little more than that and the rest of your tissues will be following them. What do you do if your brain implodes, Boss?"

The past year of training had provided ample opportunity for Naruto to discover his healing factor and begin to test it. So far, he hadn't found any limits. "Anything that doesn't kill me instantly, I can probably survive and come back from. We'll set up some tests to find out where the limits are, use a mouse or something"

"Mouse might work to start with, Boss, but the centre of gravity is different in bipeds."

"So use a chicken then. We can eat the failures; they'll probably be really tender."

"'Kay, Boss."

"Until then," he unbuckled a set of weights from his left arm and tossed them to the clone, who fielded them expertly, "see what you can do with my weights."

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At age eight, Naruto could be found at the foot of the grand staircase carved into the side of the mountain that led up to the Hokage monument. A harness consisting of a great deal of high tension springs was fitted over his body, linking his back and heels together, and providing resistance to moving them apart. His hands were lashed behind his back, and a thick chain connected them to a massive concrete block a few feet behind him. His chest was bare now, but sigils glowed faintly from the bands lining his wrists, ankles, belt region and shoulders.

Keeping his back straight and pushing hard from his thighs, he managed to gain enough height in a jump to make it to the first step, dragging the slab of concrete behind hi like an anchor. A second bunny hop took him to the next step. As he continued up the staircase in this fashion, a clone walked slowly alongside him, making light conversation and dodging the odd wayward rock. The rocks came from a group of clones a little further up the stairs, who were throwing them at him in an effort to knock him further down. It was the same exercise from a year ago, but made more intense by his lack of a vest to protect his torso.

"So get this," the clone by his side was almost bouncing with excitement, "Tsunade…you know who that is, right?"

"Slug Sannin." Naruto managed to grunt out an answer despite his exertions. He stumbled slightly as a rock bounced off his chin, but regained his balance in the nick of time.

"Right, right, she's the Slug Sannin – famed, amongst other things, for her incredible strength. I managed to find this," he was waving a battered book around. The watermark suggested it came from Konoha public library, "and the author says he thinks the secret to her strength was some kind of chakra technique. It's all conjecture, of course, but it makes sense…to a point that is."

"What point's that?" Naruto managed to hop two steps at once in a feat of Herculean strength.

"Well, if even a half of what's credited to her is true, then the story just doesn't pan out. The guy who wrote this was a civilian, so he wouldn't know, but the type of technique he describes would only add power to each hit, which wouldn't explain her throwing and lifting power" The clone was sounding less ecstatic as he listed the flaws with the theory, but he brightened up as he went on, "but I'm sure she at least uses this technique to supplement her attacks. Her regular strength is being augmented in some other way, maybe some kind of experimental surgery she did on herself, but we might be able to learn this chakra skill."

"How?" The simple word contained a wealth of meaning. One did not become a Sannin by having jutsu that were easy to copy.

"Well, if we consider her specialities, we might be able to figure something out. It still wouldn't be enough to figure it out, but we could put in some preparatory work, and maybe a couple years down the line we'll come across someone with a similar skill who'll be willing to teach it, and then we'll be ready."

"So what is the preparatory work, all we really know about her is that she's a chronic gambler and a skilled medi-nin…?"

"For medical jutsu, we found out that chakra control is key. I'll bet that's her best field too, and I'd lay my life on it being a fundamental aspect of that technique." Ignoring the fact that the life of a clone was measured in hours anyway. "I got some of the guys to look into chakra control, and we got a lot of stuff to work on. I tell ya, Boss, even if we weren't interested in this jutsu, this looks like useful stuff. You practice enough and you can walk on trees, or water. You can balance on pins without hurting your fingers – can you imagine a whole-body version of that…?"

"Chakra control, huh? Tell me, is there a difference in the bodies of a guy who's learnt it and a guy who hasn't." Naruto had slowed his progress while he spoke to keep from being out of breath. Having finished talking he sped up again.

"Bodies, Boss? No, it's all mental, but why…Oh, I getcha, Boss. You're thinking this is something us guys could take care of? Makes sense to me. I think some of the guys are still back in the field, so I'll go make a start on it with them." He eyed the remaining staircase and made some quick calculations in his mind. "You think you could send some more guys when you reach the top, Boss? We should be running out by then." He waited for Naruto's nod and sped off.

Naruto faced his attackers. Ignoring their assault, he redoubled his efforts to reach the top.

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Age nine saw Naruto back in a field with his shirt off. A clone stood behind him and applied ink to his back in precise designs. Another clone behind him watched to catch any mistakes before they activated the seals. After extensive research, they were finally ready to test the gravity simulation seal on Naruto.

Extensive research on small mammals and simple bipeds had provided them with the figures they needed for the limitations that living bodies could accept and still survive. A few clones had volunteered to use the seal, and they had failed to expire instantly, which suggested that Naruto would also at least be able to survive it, given his healing factor.

Eventually, Naruto's goal was to survive and adapt to twice what they had calculated as the maximum he would be able to stand. He knew it was a nearly impossible goal, but felt that an easy dream was barely worth attaining. He would have to first reach the calculated maximum and adapt to it, an impossible feat without chakra. He hoped to reach the point where merely his base level of chakra constantly reinforced his body and organs to the point they could withstand those pressures. If he achieved that, to the point he could survive indefinitely in that kind of environment, then he could think about going higher. Still, that was a long way off.

So the acceleration was designed to take place in a series of steps. The first goal was five times the standard earth gravity. The effect would start slow and gradually accelerate until he was constantly under the required pressure. At that point the seals would pause for a while, letting his body and chakra adapt to the strain before continuing. The second goal was twenty gravities, but the growth of the seal was designed to slow down greatly after the first five. Five gravities was something that the chickens had adapted to eventually, to the point where they could function as effectively as they had in regular gravity. Twenty gravities hadn't killed any of them instantly, but not even the chickens who had managed to adapt to five G's had succeeded in moving significantly in twenty. Eventually, their hearts had failed, and they had died.

Naruto knew that if he adapted to five gravities, his mastery of his chakra - a field denied to the, admittedly somewhat mindless chickens - might just let him adapt to twenty the way he did to five. It was by no means guaranteed, and even with a body as resilient as his, there was a law of diminishing return. He could only take so much gravity before it began to damage him faster than it strengthened him. He predicted that would happen somewhere in the region of thirty to forty gravities. Of course that was all conjecture. If he attempted to withstand that kind of strain now his clones would be scraping him off the ground.

"Now remember, you probably won't feel anything at first. The seal will advance so slowly at the beginning that any change will be negligible. Probably it will only become noticeable after you wake up tomorrow or something." His clones were lecturing him. By now he had more or less come to terms with the dangers of this experiment. It both surprised and amused him somewhat that his clones seemed more worried than he was. "You've opted to keep your weights on, and that's probably fine, but if you think it might be too much, turn them down or drop them altogether. This isn't worth ripping your arms off for."

"I remember. Are we ready?" He was breathing deeply to calm himself. Despite his blasé attitude, he did have a few reservations about this, mainly to do with the pain he would experience if they screwd it up, rather than any fear of dying from it.

"Ready when you are, Boss."

He breathed deeply one last time, and then breathed out, emptying his lungs. "Hit it!"

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Naruto was ten now. He was ten and he was tired. He was also upside down, hanging from his ankles which were tied to a chain looped around a branch of the tree above him. His wrists were similarly bound; the chain was connected to a series of massive weights that hung towards the ground. The branch he hung from was thick and sturdy, but the weight of himself and the weights made it groan and sway dangerously. Regardless, he pushed on.

"Four thousand nine hundred and ninety eight. Four thousand nine hundred and ninety nine." He gave a grunt as he levered his body up at the waist to touch his toes one last time. "Five thousand." He gave a sigh of relief and relaxed, letting his hands droop beneath him under the massive weight they bore. He hung there for a while, breathing deeply.

He had been training more in this manner over the past year. He was always aware that the intense weight training might stunt his growth. Training upside down let his spine decompress, and hopefully staved off such negative effects of his exertions. Since beginning gravity training last year, he had upped the amount of time he used this particular method, aiming to spend a few hours upside down every day. So far it seemed to be working. He doubted he would ever be fantastically tall, but right now he was about average for his age.

Having caught his breath, he levered himself up again, grabbing hold of his heels, and then the branch he swung from, eventually managing to sit on the branch with his hands in front of him. A flicker of his will later, a clone was sitting beside him on the branch. Kage Bunshin without seals was another product of last years training. He still needed them for summoning clones _en masse_.

The clone freed his legs first, and then helped him free his arms. Both dropped to the ground, with Naruto's weights making a significant dent on arrival.

He summoned a second clone and walked over to the training he had set up beforehand. A wide, deep pan was set over a smouldering fire he had lit before doing his exercises - while he waited for it to heat up. The pan was filled with about even portions of coarse sand and powdered iron, both now smoking with heat.

Two sledgehammers were leaning against a nearby tree, and his clones casually picked them up, slinging them over a shoulder with ease. Meanwhile he moved over to the pan and shucked his coat, and then his shirt after a moments thought.

Widening his stance, he straightened his fingers and sent a knife hand plunging deep into the pan of heated sand, quickly pulling it back and replaced it with the other hand and repeating. He ignored the soreness and burning sensation in his forearms, and continued.

The clones took up positions on either side of him. Some subtle signal passed between them, and the one on his left sent the hammer it held swinging towards his chest. It connected with a meaty _thwack_ and stumbled him, although his hands never paused in their routine. The second clone repeated the motion, the hammer meeting him in the centre of his back, between his shoulders, sending a shock down his spine but not stopping him.

The pattern repeated until sometime later when a voice interrupted the training.

"Hey Boss. Hey, check this out, Boss." A clone was running through the field, waving a sheaf of papers clenched in its hand. It looked excited enough that Naruto actually slowed his motions to pay attention to it.

The clone took a moment to catch its breath, and then started talking fast. He'd managed to find an old medical record detailing the exploits of a Nin who tried to develop a new formula of soldier pill during the Iwa war. He had wanted to develop something that would allow him to use levels of power on par with the celestial gates. The initial reports of his wonder drug were positive. It showed some negatives, such as a few odd hormonal effects, characterised by the near constant facial hair growth it caused, but it also gave him strength that others described as being on par with Tsunade of the Sannin.

Having completed the testing period for his drug, and with the war heating up, he secretly gave it to several of his assistants, in the form of a meal disguised as a bowlful of Soba noodles, and took the required dose as well himself.

The drug seemed to work perfectly. Convinced he had revolutionalised warfare, he and his team carved a bloody path through the Iwa forces for almost a week, suffering mild to extreme hormonal balances in the process. Their progress was stymied after a week when, within hours of one another, they all exploded.

Here the clone offered two photos from his sheaf of papers. Naruto stopped his training and took them, the paper singing slightly in places from the hot sand still embedded in his skin.

The first photo was a 'before' picture: five healthy Nins, four male, one female. One was older than the others, and it was clear they all looked up to him somewhat from their expressions.

The second picture was the 'after' photo, apparently taken only hours before the first of them died. It was slightly more disturbing. What immediately caught the eye was the long facial hair sported by all the subjects, including the kunoichi. Secondly the eye was drawn to the breasts, now present on all five of them in sizes good to put most women to shame. All had more muscle definition than in the previous photo, and perhaps most tellingly, the four young ninjas were now staring at their leader with undisguised hatred.

"How did you get these?" It was a fair question; Naruto didn't want to get in trouble for something his clones had done. "This sort of stuff is in the private medical records. It's classified."

"It was misfiled." The clone's voice held a note of triumph. "I found it in the files open to the public."

"Okay, but what good is it for me?" Naruto shuddered, "I don't want to end up like this guy."

"Look," The clone was emphatic, "regardless of anything else, this drug – affectionately referred to by whoever filed it as 'super soba' – _did _work. It_ did _make him stronger. Sure it has some side effects, but with your healing factor…"

Naruto was silent for a moment as he processed the situation internally. Finally he spoke. "You're right. This is useful. But _I'm_ not going to be the one to test it. _You _are!"

The clone frowned. "Uh, Boss…not to nitpick, but there's some kind of flaw in the logic of giving body altering drugs to someone who's body is basically _temporary_."

"No, listen." Naruto waited to make sure he had his clone's attention before he continued. "You take the drug. You get strong, and whatever else is happening in your body happens. You study the effect, figure out what happens to your body, your chakra and whatnot, and then you report back. We figure out how to do whatever to our own bodies without the drug. Our bodies create their own cocktails of stimulants, depressants, all kinds of things. Who's to say we can't imitate the effects of this rug on our own, without the side effects." He shrugged, "And if it doesn't work, what've we lost? You, some time, and some money maybe. Nothing big…no offence."

The clone looked somewhat offended at that last shot, but nodded reluctantly. He could see how it would work, and it was really the only way to possibly get the benefits without the problems as well. "Fine…but we'll need to make up a batch of the stuff, then. Enough for an army I guess. Most of this stuff we can buy no problem, but a few bits are expensive, and a few are rare. If we start looking now, we can have an initial batch ready in…a week? A month? I dunno."

"Fine, get to it. Two months from now I want to see a dozen or more clones complaining they need bigger bras." He turned back to his training, "Was there anything else, while you're here?"

"Yes actually." The clone's expression brightened. "I knew you were interested in body hardening techniques and training, so I looked that up too, while I was there. You already know most of the modern stuff, so I went back to records from before Konoha was founded." His grin was incandescent, and it made Naruto kind of nervous. "Two words: _Bakusai Tenketsu."_

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Naruto poured the iron dust into a glass, measuring carefully a slightly larger amount than the day before. He topped the glass up with water and stirred briefly. Still stirring, he lifted the glass to his lips and drank, repressing his natural reflex to choke and bring back up the unpalatable powder. He refilled the glass with water and drank, repeating his actions until he no longer felt the urge to throw up. Across from him, his clone looked on in sympathy.

The iron sand he was consuming was part of his iron body training. His clones had come across part of a legend that said that there was a certain bloodline – long since lost to time – that reputedly gained its powers from generations of the clan females consuming it in such a fashion, and eventually breeding a child who could metabolise the iron and make it part of his body.

Naruto had no idea whether or not the legend was true, or even if it was whether he himself would gain any benefit from it, but he had reasoned that his healing factor would prevent any serious or permanent damage, and at the very least it should toughen up his innards.

His determination to get stronger didn't make it taste any better though.

_Bakusai Tenketsu_ training had gifted him with what he considered to be a 'stone body'. His training with the heated sands had started him on the route to possessing an 'iron skin'. In order to gain an 'iron body' he needed to train his body further, enhancing its toughness while retaining his flexibility. Iron or steel was superior to stone, not only because of its inherent strength, but also because of its malleability – iron would bend before it broke.

He hoped the iron sand would help – he'd hate to be eating it for no reason.

Eventually, he no longer felt like throwing up, and turned his attention back to the clone.

"You were saying…?"

The clone brought its attention back to the paper it held in its hands, while its creator began bustling around, preparing himself for his day.

"Ah, yes…work on the super soba is proceeding according to the schedule you wrote up – we're learning enough about it to believe we can recreate its effects through a slight modification of the inner coils. Basically making them act in a more efficient manner delivering chakra to the muscles, which has associated physical effects on your anatomy. Just doing it yourself rather than taking the drug should prevent the majority of the unwanted side effects, and the rest can either be buffered or eliminated with chakra." He looked up at his creator, now geared up and ready to leave. "More experimentation is required of course, to confirm all of this."

Naruto nodded, "Of course…so when…?"

The clone looked back to his papers, "Well, we should be ready for you to try in about six months time, assuming everything goes to plan. You will need to make the changes to your coils, then enforce it with your will until they set in their new configuration. After that, you should reconfigure them daily for the first two months, and weekly for another six, after which they should be permanently set in their new forms." He stood up to follow Naruto, locking the door to their apartment after them.

"At this point, we're willing to predict a twofold increase in physical strength, though it could be much more. Maybe less too, if there's something we still don't know. Mostly, the clones we test on seem to be able to use the strength they gain much more effectively – that is, their maximum strengths aren't increased by a great deal, but they can apply that maximum far easier than the unenhanced clones can apply _their _maximum.'

"That doesn't make any sense," Naruto was shaking his head as they walked towards the training field. He absentmindedly adjusted his weights as he walked. "If they can lift something with ease, then that means they should be able to lift something heavier with more difficulty."

The clone nodded, "That is true, and to a certain extent that is observed, but much less for enhanced clones than for unenhanced ones. So far the best theory is that the soba lifts some of the mental limits on strength, letting you use it more freely, but also preventing you from telling your limits until you get really close to them." He shrugged, passing his notes to Naruto.

Naruto walked in silence, scanning the notes as he did so, and finally speaking as they approached the field. "Well…it's not a big problem in any case, if you consider the benefits. Six months, you said? I'll be ready." His clone threw him a lazy salute and disappeared as they entered they field. Naruto stuffed the notes into his pocket.

A number of clones were there already, setting up his training devices for the day. He had devised this training adapted mostly from the _Bakusai Tenketsu_ training, taken to a higher level. Metal wrecking balls hung from immense struts, and iron pylons were embedded in the ground for him to stand against during the training. As he came to the first of those girders, he lay himself on it spread eagled, and let his clones strap him down.

As they drew back the wrecking ball ready to let it swing, he sighed. The things he did to get stronger…

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Naruto strode confidently through the rain towards the field with a spring in his step, waving cheerfully to the clones he met on his way as they dashed to and fro carrying beams and bars from place to place. He finally came to a rough gazebo in the centre of the field – a couple of poles with a sheet of canvas to keep the rain off – and stepped inside.

He quickly found the clone who was directing the rest, as he was bent over some plans on the plastic table the gazebo was designed to cover. Looking over his shoulder, Naruto was gratified to see the plans they had discussed for the renovation of their training field.

Five years of continued and uninterrupted use had convinced him that no one else was likely to stake claim to their field, so Naruto had decided to build a vast training zone on the site, incorporating both mechanical devices and chakra powered ones. It had taken a lot of research into seals, but he and his clones had reached the point where they thought they might be able to pull it off.

The time before he could graduate was quickly shrinking, and he wanted to spend the last year and some in as intensive training as was possible. Thus far the plan was simple – increase his limiters as far as possible, and then spend the next year in constant activity, honing his strength against training devices and his skills against his clones.

He would never be a martial artist, as he completely lacked the kind of dedication to skill and technique that would make such a thing possible. He readily admitted that what little street fighting and brawling skills he could lay claim to were painfully mediocre. But he hoped to be able to put himself in enough battle simulations that he could trust his body to move without hesitation in a manner that would help insure its survival.

Classic taijutsu styles were of no use to him whatsoever. They were all built around the principles of increasing the users ability to defend themselves, and Naruto had no need to practise self-defence. With his incredible toughness, his defence was assured, so his only need was to connect with the enemy.

The style he hoped to build for himself over the next year, honestly wouldn't be much of a style. It would have no stances, and no defences. No blocks, no dodges. It would be nothing more than just pounding away at whatever stood in his way.

He couldn't hope for more at this stage, but suspected it still might be enough.

Emerging from his mess of thoughts, he realised that his clone had still not noticed his presence, focused as he was on the plans on the table in front of him.

Naruto waited for a moment to see whether his clone was going to be finished any time soon, then grew tired of waiting and leaned down to tap his overworked copy on the shoulder, eliciting a jump of surprise before the clone took stock and realised what was happening.

When he had control of himself again, the clone gestured to the only other seat at the table, and Naruto took it with some satisfaction, easing himself down slowly as it groaned under his weight. The clone turned the plans so he could see them and gestured.

"As you can see Boss, work is coming along pretty well. We're getting most of the stuff we need from various scrapyards and I can't predict a situation where we can't get pretty much everything we need from there."

Naruto nodded, scanning the plans briefly. He already knew most of what was written there, having put a fair deal of it there himself, and having received the memories of the clones who supplied the rest. He looked up to meet his clone's eyes and spoke.

"This all looks good, as far as I can see. Give me a run through of what's going on. If the rain lets up then you can give me a tour as well."

The clone nodded, going silent for a moment as it gathered its thoughts, then it reached under the table, retrieving a mass of leather and metal, and addressed it creator again.

"Alright – first off lets see what we've got as far as training devices centred on you. Obviously, we'll keep updating your weights and gravity seals, as and when the situation dictates, but we also have something that could render that somewhat unnecessary." He gestured to the device he held, "This is the prototype for the muscle restriction band we developed."

Naruto reached forward, taking the contraption. As he looked closer, he saw that it was designed to be used as a belt of sorts. The clone continued speaking.

"After we put it on you we'll use chakra strings to attach your muscles directly to it. The seals we put on the belt will keep them in place, taking chakra from you to maintain them. The properties of the strings can be altered somewhat – we are taking advantage of this by creating strings with incredible tensile strength. That way when we attach them to your muscles and align them with he muscle fibres, they'll resist contraction, making it harder for you to move that muscle."

He took back the belt when Naruto offered it and replaced it under the table. "We're in the process of testing it now – we don't predict any problems. The final model will have multiple chakra strings going to every muscle group in your body. As for the reason we think this might be able to replace the rest of your restraints…well, how much do you know about power and strength?"

Naruto rested his chin on his knuckles as he answered, "I know as much as you know, I suspect. Tell me anyway, though. It helps me to hear it all said out loud."

The clone nodded cheerfully, its voice taking on a faintly lecturing tone. "Right now you have a lot of strength, which means basically that you can lift heavy things. Power can be thought of as strength you can apply instantly. You might be able to hold something above your head with ease, but be unable to get it moving in the first place – you can apply the required force to resist the effects of gravity on such an object, but you can't apply it in such a manner as to overcome the initial inertia of the object…to get it moving in the first place.

That explosive contraction of muscles – that's what we want to develop, because it's power that's useful in a fight. Without power, you might as well just be pushing people, rather than punching them. What good is a punch if it moves so slowly that the momentum it supplies to the target is miniscule.

Right now, when you fight your clones, you can send them flying with your punches. We think that if you had more power, or knew how to use it better, that those same punches could be ripping clear through us instead of just knocking us about."

Naruto nodded. He knew all of this already, but hearing it repeated to him helped him come to terms with it better. He gestured for the clone to continue.

"Well, we'll put the belt on you. We'll adjust it until you can't move normally, only when you utilise that explosive muscle power. A very basic medical diagnostic jutsu will record the moment, identifying the precise level of muscle power you needed to do so. From then on, we can alter the seals on the belt such that the muscle restriction improves whenever you get stronger or more powerful – no matter how powerful you get you will never get to the point where the belt will let you move _without_ that explosive muscle power…"

"…And of course once I actually possess that muscle power, there are a lot of ways to apply it. They all will need training as well, so the sooner I can start practising, the sooner I can integrate them into my reflexes, making them a viable part of my arsenal."

The clone nodded emphatically at his master's interruption, "Right. A lot of the more mundane iron body techniques depend on the fact that a tensed muscle is harder and tougher than an untensed one. By tensing all your muscles, you become much harder to hurt, but you're paralysed like that because all the muscles are working against one another. Ideally you want to only tense them at the moment of impact, and only in the region you're being attacked at – that way you'll maintain most of your agility, and only lose a little when you're attacked.

In addition, there's the Muscle Bomb…you know, the move we theorised could work. It's based on the fact that a tensed muscle expands. If you expand a muscle at the same time someone tries to punch you, you can effectively hit their fist back with your muscle, turning defence into an attack. Likewise with iron skin, you have to practise and prepare if you want to retain your mobility when you use it.

And of course, there's the chakra control we've all been practising for so long – the pin balancing exercise. If we could do that from every pore, we could protect ourselves from all sorts of attacks.

Thing is, right now that's way out as a plan. We can do it a little…weaving a skin-tight chakra barrier, but even you don't have the chakra to do a full powered one permanently – maybe later when we've practised enough for the barrier to become part of our natural coils, we can start putting more and more power in, but right now it's not an option.

What we need to do is do a small permanent barrier, and then increase it's power anywhere we're being attacked. And the more precisely we can do it, the more power we can save. Again, that needs time, and practise until you can do it naturally and instinctively.

Of course, we've got a plan for that too." Here the clone looked up, and Naruto followed his gaze. The rain had stopped while they had been speaking. "Still up for that tour…I can show you what I was talking about?"

Naruto grinned at his clone, the change in weather and planning for the future having increased his already good cheer. He stood up and gestured for the clone to go first, following him out of the pagoda and into the light of the sun.

Clones were still dashing from place to place throughout the field, dragging various tools and building materials with them. Naruto caught a glimpse of the old Bakusai Tenketsu training area as they were led past it– now expanded and augmented into something quite terrifying. One of the clones working on it stepped back and focused his chakra…only to be swept out of existence as a metallic wrecking ball swung wildly into him, apparently drawn by the chakra use.

The clone leading him kept up a constant stream of chatter as they walked, pointing out various parts of the training field being built. Over there would be a spiked pit with greased sides, and next to it was a trench to be filled with hot coals. To their left was a vent set into the ground through which some simple and inexpensive gaseous poisons and drugs would be pumped onto the field from tanks buried underground. A large section was set aside for a gauntlet style corridor filled with whirring steel blades and trip wires – the clone explained they were thinking of connecting it up to what he affectionately referred to as 'the lightning trap' (now coming up on their right) a bunch of metal plates and poles set into the ground and inscribed with the seals for a basic raiton jutsu.

Naruto shuddered at the thought of going up against the trap as it was, let alone a vast electrified gauntlet of blades, but he'd come up with some of the plans himself – he knew how important the elemental resistance training could be, as all the rest of his iron skin or iron body techniques wouldn't protect him from a fire or lightning type jutsu, thus calling for the invention of the fire pits and lightning trap. He tried not to think too hard about what he'd be going through.

Eventually the clone led him to an area at the far side of the field, filled with piles of scrap metal and working clones. He reached into a pile of large metal tubes and pulled one out, showing it to Naruto and channelling a fragment of his chakra into it, revealing the seals that glowed along its surface.

"With a suitably prepared object to be used as a projectile," The clone reached into another pile, picking up a metal sphere about the size of a small grapefruit and activating the seals on it like he had to the pipe. Naruto, looking over the pair of items, took careful note that the diameter of the ball matched the bore of the pipe, "the seals will work in much the same way as the gravity seals we designed for you, accelerating the projectile through the tube and out the other end, and onwards."

The clone suited actions to words, sending the ball blasting through the tube and away towards the other size of the field, with a crack of displaced air. The tube had been flung out of his hands as it fired, and now lay on he ground "Right now we're losing a lot of energy to recoil. As soon as we get these things fixed in place – we're putting them around the perimeter of the training zone – we'll be able to get a better read on their power.

Right now, we think with enough chakra we can send one of those balls over a mile with enough force to shatter a decent sized tree." He shrugged, "and that's just a prediction, so it could be even more. Honestly, it's just a shame they'd be useless in a real battle. Between the set-up time and the extremely noticeable chakra presence they'd just be a disadvantage, although we could probably salvage the concept at least if it wasn't for the potential blowback." He tossed the pipe back on the pile and went on.

"See, most of the time they're pretty safe to operate, but when the seals are active they become vulnerable to attack. Basically anything going down the wrong way has a slight tendency to make it explode. Violently. In a battle all it would take would be a weapons specialist with a couple of free senbon targeting our barrels, and our entire offensive would go up in smoke. Literally."

He turned back to Naruto. "Still Boss, there's no reason not to use them during training. This is just the kind of thing to test your toughness against. Think of it like the Bakusai Tenketsu training, but with even more penetration power."

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yes. This all seems pretty good. I guess we'll have clones manning them…if I just make a whole bunch at the beginning of the day and…"

His clone was grinning, surrounded in an air of smug satisfaction as he cut in. "Actually, that won't be necessary. If you'll follow me please…" He strolled off towards the centre of the training zone.

Naruto followed after him, noting that they were taking a path designed to show him whatever he had missed during the first half of the tour. They passed a short stretch filled with sharp-pointed balance posts, and another looking something like a large set of monkey bars overlaid with a giant network of wire. Some of it was thin, sharp razor wire, but a fair measure was thick enough for them to walk on and take their weight.

His clone took this treacherous path, and Naruto followed with slightly more difficulty, swaying dangerously as the steel cable flexed to its limits beneath his gravity-enhanced frame, but stopping short before breaking.

"Now," the clone began as they reached the centre of the training zone and slowed to a stop, "if you'd just take a look at this."

He was gesturing towards a wooden board set into the ground, covered in paper. Multiple clones were arranged around it, dutifully painting elaborate seals on it in the special sealing ink he always tried to keep a ready supply of. It was fairly hard to make, the process being both chakra intensive and requiring a fair dose of his blood to mix with the ink.

Naruto bent closer to see what they were spending his precious and limited supply on. It took a moment for his mind to decipher the patterns he saw there, and even then he wasn't quite sure just what he was seeing. He checked his mental working again, coming to the same result, and looked up. His clone was grinning down at him, at the expression on his face.

"My work, actually." The clone buffed his fingernails on his shirt, deliberately casual as he answered the unspoken question. "It's recent, so you wouldn't be aware of it, and all signs say it will work.

The part you recognised down there…that's the written variant of your favourite justu, using ink and seals to replace your hand seals and intent. We'll be finished in just a couple of hours, and then you'll prime the whole thing. The amount of chakra it'll take…well you should be prepared to be out of commission for a couple of days.

When it's all set up, then the real training can start. While it's being primed, the seal will grow to envelop the entire training ground, and afterwards, it will be able to rip chakra from your coils whenever you stand within its radius, and use it to form shadow clones in vast quantities at random locations throughout the field. And we can alter the seal a little bit to keep a constant number of clones…if you beat one, the seal takes more chakra and makes another to make up the missing numbers.

The beauty is that they're all made off a template you give the seal every week or so, so even if you're completely wasted, the clones you make are as fresh as the template you supplied was. Meaning they're always good training partners, especially considering the templates will lack some of your limiters, making them as powerful as you, or more."

He gestured expansively towards the whole field. "I was thinking we'd mark out zones within the field, and any clones that were made would know what they should do based on where they appear. Say: the ones in the centre should just attack you. The ones around the perimeter will man the accelerator tubes, and any that show up outside of that will go off to do different things…maybe work on chakra control, or learn more about seals, or whatever ongoing projects you have."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he spoke, "I guess we should send a few – maybe ten or so – off to the academy in your place every day. They can swap out when they think they might get destroyed, and that way you'll get any useful information that's being taught there." He noticed Naruto's sceptical look. "Hey, it could happen"

He turned back to his creator, grinning widely. "Well? Whaddya think, Boss?"

Naruto shook his head in disbelief and admiration as he looked over the seal one last time and stood up. He shrugged, wordlessly trying to convey his approval to his clone, and smiling at all the other clones looking eagerly up at him from around the field. An audible sigh went up from the chakra constructs as their work was confirmed as a success by his silent endorsement.

He turned back to his leading clone, and spoke, "Well, I'm incredibly impressed by all this. I knew some of it already of course, but what you've managed to do…it's just incredible. I guess I'll do some light training, and you guys'll call me when you need chakra, right? So I'll see you in a bit."

"Right, Boss." His clone smiled. "Go. Have fun. 'Cause as soon as this is all finished, it's gonna be Pain City for like a year." He hesitated, "And Boss?"

"Yeah," Naruto turned around from where he'd been strolling away.

The clone smiled, "Happy Birthday, Boss."

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Naruto only rose out of his reflections when he realised the water was running cold. He quickly finished scrubbing himself off, and stepped out of the shower. A flicker of his will moments before meant that there was a clone waiting to hand him a towel as he got out.

The training zone had been completed less than a week after his eleventh birthday, and he had spent just over a year using and abusing its facilities, barely leaving even to eat or sleep. Clones would bring him food, and he slept wherever he collapsed out of exhaustion.

As of November 1st in his twelfth year of life, he was stronger, faster, and tougher than he had ever been before. His chakra control was exceptional – especially for him – and he had gained a substantial immunity to several common drugs and poisons, as well as a level of resistance towards elemental damage almost as impressive as his tolerance for blunt physical trauma.

The training zone, such as it was, was a complete wreck. The only reason he'd stopped using it, was that eventually it had begun to take more damage than his clones could readily repair, and the finishing blow had been struck when he had managed to damage the grounds enough that the seal that created Kage Bunshin for him was completely disrupted.

He could have had the whole thing rebuilt from scratch, but he had decided against it. At that point, he had had only a few short months remaining before his graduation, and he decided against returning to his old methods of training. He had other things to worry about.

For one, he wanted to prepare for the exam. Despite his belief that his mastery of shadow clones would more or less guarantee his success, he knew how much he was disliked by several of the staff at the academy, and he wanted there to be no question of his competence.

Secondly, as a Genin, he would be required to take part in missions where combat was a factor. This meant that his current limiters, which took nearly an hour to take off or put on, were utterly unsuitable, as he couldn't be sure that his limited strength would be enough to be sure of victory. For that matter, he wasn't convinced that his limited strength would be sufficient in normal life, as even everyday actions became difficult.

The other part of that problem, was that he needed to become used to operating without limiters again – a situation more difficult than it sounded, because he hadn't taken off or removed his limiters in years.

So he had spent the last several months doing basic training and gradually stripping himself of his limiters. He planned to replace them with one of his new creations.

Over the last year, several of his clones had helped expand his knowledge of sealing, and the culmination of their efforts, was a new kind of limiter: a leather bracer that he could wear over one forearm.

The seals on it would provide an easily adjustable version of both the gravity and chakra string based limiters, and were applied in such a way that all the strings and the acceleration field would detach harmlessly from his body if the bracer was removed…something that couldn't be said for his old restriction belt.

And because the seals were adjustable, he could lower them to a level that would let him function in normal situations but still continue training, or he could raise them higher, if he got enough free time to undergo more serious training.

The bracer had been completed a few days ago, and he planned to wear it for the first time today, swapping it out for the last of his weights.

He gestured to his clone, and it grabbed the bracer from his bedside drawer while he discarded the weights, setting them down carefully. Even without the gravity seals, the weights he had first received so many years ago were still heavy enough to break floorboards and the like if handled without care. He'd have one of his clones return them to the man they were borrowed from so long ago.

The bracer went on easily, and as soon as he channelled his chakra into it, he could feel gravity pressing down on him and chakra strings compressing his muscles. He ran a finger in a curious pattern over the surface of the leather, activating certain seals to greater or lesser extent until he gained his chosen level of resistance. He flexed his arms and legs for a moment, feeling them out, eventually deciding he was satisfied.

He took a moment to admire the bracer on his arm for a moment. Worn brown leather, laced along the underarm and with seams done in stitching of his favourite orange. That done, he turned and got dressed, before looking himself over in the bathroom mirror.

He was about average height for his age, or maybe just a little less. His frame was tightly muscled, but not overly bulky, which had somewhat surprised him when it stared to develop. He supposed that for the kind of strength he had aimed for, just having bigger muscles wasn't going to be nearly enough, so his body had developed the strength in different ways – he wasn't complaining. His skin was darkly tanned from his years of working out under the hot sun of fire country, which meant that the dark lines on his cheeks were less prominent, although still visible. Blue eyes shone brightly above them.

He was wearing a navy blue shirt with his trademark spiral on the back, and a pair of dungaree-shorts – again in his favourite orange – over the top. Ninja sandals and his bracer finished the ensemble, as he had declined to wear the goggles that normally rested on his forehead – a gift to himself a couple of months ago, as a way of reminding himself of his goal…unnecessary after today.

He allowed himself a moment of vanity, as he stared at himself. It wasn't something he usually did, although it was hardly necessary, given that he spent every day with countless identical copies of himself. He tore himself away from his image when he heard his clone snigger behind him. He fixed it with a mock glare, and returned the grin that followed before dismissing it, smiling slightly as he got its memories and realised just how foolish he had looked.

He grabbed his ninja pouch, containing the rest of his supplies, and set off, locking the door behind him and strolling unhurriedly through the streets.

'_Watch out Konoha,'_ he thought, _''cause here I come!' _

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Well, that's the first chapter finished finally. i had most of this ready to go for ages, and just needed to do the last couple of scenes.

Super soba is from Ranma 1/2. In the manga, the only side effects it has is growing whiskers, but I figured anything that would do tat that fast had to be having some massive long-term hormonal side-effects.

Bakusai Tenketsu, also from Ranma.

Muscle Bomb is from Tenjou Tenge

Anything else I haven't given proper credit for is probably stolen from some anime too, so don't give any credit to me for most of this.

Next time: The story begins.


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